This mini-panorama combines two photographs taken by Apollo 15 lunar module pilot Jim Irwin, from the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) site, at the end of the second Apollo 15 moonwalk on August 1, 1971. Apollo 15 was the fourth crewed mission to land on the Moon. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/a15pan11845-7.jpg
NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik looks through the hatch of the International Space Station's Bigelow Expandable Aerospace Module (BEAM) on July 31, 2017. The BEAM is an experimental expandable module just over halfway into its planned two-year demonstration on the space station. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss052e023354.jpg
On July 5, 2017, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watched an active region — an area of intense and complex magnetic fields — rotate into view on the Sun. This image shows a blended view of the sunspot in visible and extreme ultraviolet light, revealing bright coils arcing over the active region — particles spiraling along magnetic field lines. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/sunspotthumb1.jpg
The thin sliver of Saturn's moon Prometheus lurks near ghostly structures in Saturn's narrow F ring in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21340-1041.jpg
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of solar evaporation ponds outside the city of Moab, Utah. There are 23 colorful ponds spread across 400 acres. They are part of a large operation to mine potassium chloride—more commonly referred to as muriate of potash (MOP)—from ore buried underground. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss052e008757_lrg.jpg
Dwarf galaxy NGC 5949 sits at a distance of around 44 million light-years from us, placing it within the Milky Way’s cosmic neighborhood. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1732a.jpg
NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks toward the night side of Saturn's moon Titan in a view that highlights the extended, hazy nature of the moon's atmosphere. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21625.jpg
The two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kenney Space Center carrying the Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/35762625713_ec6cc0f232_o.jpg
This striking Jovian vista was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21778.png
As the Sun rises at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket vents liquid oxygen propellant vapors during fueling for the lift off of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-M. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/35842085403_f4d65f9429_o.jpg
As the Sun rises at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket vents liquid oxygen propellant vapors during fueling for the lift off of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-M. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/35842085403_f4d65f9429_o.jpg
This composite image shows the progression of a partial solar eclipse over Ross Lake, in Northern Cascades National Park, Washington on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nhq201708210306.jpg
Cassini gazes across the icy rings of Saturn toward the icy moon Tethys, whose night side is illuminated by Saturnshine, or sunlight reflected by the planet. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21342-1041.jpg
As millions of people across the United States experienced a total eclipse as the umbra, or moon’s shadow passed over them, only six people witnessed the umbra from space. The space station crossed the path of the eclipse three times as it orbited above the continental United States at an altitude of 250 miles. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss052e056122.jpg
It was spring in the Northern hemisphere when this image was taken on May 21, 2017, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Over the winter, snow and ice have inexorably covered the dunes. Unlike on Earth, this snow and ice is carbon dioxide, better known to us as dry ice. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/esp_050703_2560.jpg
On August 25, 2017, NASA astronaut Jack Fischer photographed Hurricane Harvey from the cupola module aboard the International Space Station as it intensified on its way toward the Texas coast. The Expedition 52 crew on the station has been tracking this storm for the past two days and capturing Earth observation photographs and videos. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss052e074806.jpg
A NASA F-18 jet takes off from the agency's Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 23, 2017. The F-18 jets fly at supersonic speeds while agency researchers measure the effects of low-altitude turbulence caused by sonic booms, part of NASA's Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence, or SonicBAT II Program. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/36782365195_b7fcd1480c_o.jpg
NASA's Operation IceBridge is flying its summer Arctic land ice campaign in Greenland, continuing its measurements of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its outlet glaciers. This photograph from the mission was taken on Aug. 29, 2017, from 28,000 feet, looking north while surveying Nioghalvfjerdsbrae (79 N) Glacier in northeast Greenland. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/difhixfxgaiyjzp.jpg
NASA engineers closed a summer of successful hot fire testing Aug. 30 for flight controllers on RS-25 engines that will help power the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket being built to carry astronauts to deep-space destinations, including Mars. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/s17-062_ssc-20170830-s00712_rs-25_engine_test.jpg
MCG+01-38-005 (below) is a special kind of megamaser; the galaxy’s active galactic nucleus pumps out huge amounts of energy, stimulating clouds of surrounding water. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1735a.jpg